Networked Remote Meter-Reading System Based on

Wireless Communication Technology

Liting Cao, Jingwen Tian and Dahang ZhangCollege ofAutomation

Beijing Union UniversityBeijing, China

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Presentation By:Abhiram Reddy Gandhari,

ECGR 6185, UNCC,March 13th 2013

Agenda:

• Introduction- meter reading, Bluetooth and GSM • Motivation• Structure of the proposed system• Hardware design:

1. Measuring meter2. Intelligent terminal3. Communication modules

• System management • Actual implementation of this system• Conclusion• References

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Introduction:

Meter reading-• Critical first-step in the utility revenue collection.• A labor-intensive activity.• Helps to detect leaks, hazards and safety issues.

Bluetooth-• Wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances.• Uses short-wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400–2480 MHz.• standardized as IEEE 802.15.1.

GSM-• Describes protocols for second generation (2G) digital cellular network.• Developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

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Automatic meter reading-

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Motivation:

• Hiring and training effective and efficient meter readers increases the cost of meter reading.

• Changes in industry and economy have forced Utilities to reduce operating costs.

• Demand for better customer service and satisfaction.

• Support real-time pricing initiatives, load forecasting, demand-side management, load control

• Growing need for more timely access to energy usage information.

• status and usage information is needed on an event basis to improve reliability, power quality, and to identify outages.

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System structure:

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• Consists of terminal sensors, measuring meters, intelligent terminals, wireless communication network and management centre.

• The intelligent terminal is used to acquire data from meters and control the energy-consuming devices in residence.

• The core of the intelligent terminal is composed of ARM MPU S344BOX and embedded operating system “uclinux”.

• Communication between the intelligent terminals and management centre is through GSM.

• The measuring meter and the intelligent terminal use bluetooth as the communication method.

• Meter reading, bill computation and fault detection can be finished at the management centre itself.

Hardware design:

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Measure meters-

• Consists of sensor circuit, transducers and mechanical measuring meters.

• New meters also include microcontrollers and digital LCD display.

• Depending on the sensor used, the mechanical data is converted to analog or digital quantities

• Data sources for the meter reading system.

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Intelligent terminal-

• Consists of a central process unit, data-acquisition & storage module, wirelesscommunication module, sensor-monitoring module, device-controlling moduleand display module.

1) Samsung S3C44BOX microprocessor:32-bit ARM7TDMI RISC microprocessor (66MHz) that includes-

• Internal SRAM, LCD controller, 2-channel UART with handshake, 4-channelDMA, System manager, 5-hannel timers with PWM, I/O ports, RTC, 8-channel10-bit ADC, JIC-BUS interface, IIS-BUS interface, Sync, SIO interface and PLLfor clock.

• Also includes thumb de-compressor, an on-chip ICE breaker debug support,and a 32-bit hardware multiplier. Thus, the S3C44BOX minimizes overallsystem costs and eliminates the need to configure additional components.

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Intelligent terminal-

2) Peripherals:The following peripherals have been connected to the microprocessor-

• AMD's AM29LV160 as FLASH memory-address is defined from OxOOOO, 0000 to OxOOIf, ffff.

• Hyundai's HY57V641620 SDRAM-required to run the embedded operating system (uclinux). Its address is defined from0x0c00 0000 to OxOc7f ffff.

• nRf9O3 as Bluetooth Wireless Communication Module-it’s a single chip multi-channel UHF transceiver that operates in the unlicensed 433MHz, 868MHz and 915MHz ISM-/LPRD bands.nRF903 provides a standard connection of SPI interface, so it can beinterfaced with MAX3232 chip easily.

• PDA160160 LCD as the display device

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Fig.2 Samsung SC344B0XARM processor. Fig.3 AMD AM29LV160

FLASH

Fig.4 Siemens TC35 Arduino

Communication modules-

1) Bluetooth Wireless Communication-• Within a range of 20 meters, it offers outstanding features such as agility, low-cost

and flexibility.• nRf9O3 chip is used for bluetooth communication between meters and the intelligent

terminal.

2) GSM Wireless Communication-• Has very wide coverage around the world.• The management centre and the intelligent terminals form star model network via

GSM.• The management centre broadcasts the acquisition signal and operation commands

to the intelligent terminals.• Siemens TC35 GSM module has been used for communication between intelligent

terminals and the management centre.

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Fig.6 Block diagram of the intelligentterminal

System management:

1) Remote Automatic Meter-reading-• The communication structure of management computer and the intelligent terminals

is one host and multi-slave.• Commands are sent from the management computer according to the address of

the intelligent terminal. The corresponding terminal then transmits its data to the management computer.

• The management computer sends meter-reading command (asking frame) according the address of the intelligent terminal.

• The intelligent terminal compares the address in the asking frame with its own. If there’s a match, it transmits data to the management computer.

2) Database Management-• SQL Server 2000 is the background database.

3) Resident Seeking-• The resident could find data about utility usage on a particular day or for any given

week.

4) Remote Monitoring-• Designed to control energy consuming devices at a residence.• Data about remote monitoring and malfunction information will recorded in the

database for future reference.

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Flowchart-

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Actual implementation:

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The AMR/AMI system-

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Fig.7 The AMR/AMI system structure

Conclusion-

The system has many significant excellences, such as:• Accurate meter reading, no more estimates.• Improved security and tamper detection for equipment.• Energy management through profile data graphs.• Less accrued expenditure.• Less financial burden correcting mistakes.• Improved billing and tracking of usage.• Power outages may be restored faster with greater meter communication

capabilities.

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References-

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_meter_reading

2. http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Wireless-Water-Meter-Reading-for-New.html

3. http://www.ascentgroup.com/research/sum_mr.html

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